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As of Monday, new rules regarding pensions will offer wider flexibility over retirement funds. Most intriguingly, perhaps, it will mean that over-55s will be able to withdraw a lump sum from their pot of gold, 25 per cent tax-free. This raises the prospect of being able to afford a holiday of extraordinary scope. So if the North Pole tempts you or South America is on your list, the following breaks may justify throwing caution to the trade winds.

Up to £1,000 per person

Eat “out” in style in London Nothing says “British elegance” quite like a butler. Or a picnic. So Dukes St James, the esteemed London hotel that peers out over Green Park a short stroll from Buckingham Palace, will be a good place to splash out this summer. It offers picnics in the park, where, as well as the attentions of a private butler, guests can enjoy delicacies like mackerel and potato salad, lamb kofta with coriander, gourmet scotch eggs with mustard and honey and a range of red and white wines. These alfresco feasts costs £35 a head, for a minimum of two people. A two-night stay in May in a Junior Suite – a spacious hideout with bedroom and lounge – costs from £590 per person, including breakfast (£625 a head with a picnic).

Stay in a Junior Suite at Dukes St James, London

Up to £10,000 per person

Drive (very) fast cars in Dubai The most flashy of the United Arab Emirates is where fantasies can be indulged, especially if they involve squealing tyres. Waldorf Astoria now offers “luxury driving experiences” at 12 of its properties, including the Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah, which allow fast movers to climb behind the wheels of marques like the Ferrari 458 Italia, the McLaren MP4-12C and the Porsche GT3. The next of these two-and-a-half-hour blasts around desert roads is set for October 30-November 1, under the gaze of ex-Formula One driver Eric van de Poele – costing £899 per couple. A seven-night stay in a sea-view Waldorf Astoria Suite (00971 4 818 2222; waldorfastoria3.hilton.com) around these dates costs £7,701 (£4,300 per person with driving experience, not including flights).

Look at Africa through a lens The photographic odyssey sold by andBeyond (027 11 809 4300; andbeyond.com) adds something extra to the usual safari. A nine-day tour under the guidance of lensman Andrew Schoerman offers detailed tuition. The tour involves two nights at the high-end Bateleur Camp in Kenya’s Maasai Mara, and six nights at luxury enclaves in Tanzania, amid the widescreen majesty of the Serengeti and next to the volcanic might of the Ngorongoro Crater. From £8,669 per person, based on two sharing, with internal transfers (but no international flights).

Ride a rail classic across Europe… The prospect of a journey to Italy’s fabled island city by train will always appeal and part of the pension pot could certainly be spent on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Belmond (0845 077 2222; belmond.com) can organise a no-expense-spared version of this excursion with two days and one night in a suite en route from London then two nights at the Hotel Cipriani, cocooned in the vast Palladio Suite, with its lagoon-view balcony, marble bathrooms, private terrace and butler service. A departure on June 7 costs from £10,730 a head (two sharing), with business-class flights home, a private half-day tour of Venice and private use of a boat during your time in the city.

Pass the Kazan Kremlin on a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Photo: AP

…or across the whole of Russia If two days on the tracks seems too short, then the world’s most alluring train adventure also awaits. Cox & Kings (020 7873 5000; coxandkings.co.uk) dispenses a range of trips on the Trans-Siberian Railway, the longest being 5,600 miles from Moscow to Vladivostok. It goes via Kazan with its Unesco-listed 16th-century Kremlin citadel, the Siberian capital Irkutsk and Lake Baikal, the planet’s largest body of fresh water (by volume). Trundling east on the 15-day Golden Eagle train, with its heated floors, is a sumptuous affair, not least if you opt for a Gold suite at £12,895 per person during the bright nights of August, including all meals (but not international flights). Alternatively, push the budget to £21,195 a head and stay in Imperial class.

Go to the top of the world by helicopter Russian expertise also plays a role in the extravaganza organised by Intrepid Travel (0808 250 7163; intrepidtravel.com). The “North Pole Express” is a five-day expedition that reaches the summit of the globe in real style. Participants take off from Longyearbyen, in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, on an Antonov AN-74 transporter plane, before two nights, at Barneo Ice Camp, a research station at 89°N that is rebuilt each year by Russian scientists. The crowning glory, however, is the chance to hop on to aa Mi-8 helicopter for that final-degree foray to Earth’s pinnacle. Two jaunts are scheduled for 2016 (April 13-17 and 15-19), costing from £19,795 a head, not including flights to Spitsbergen.

Up to £50,000 per person

Sample the best of Brazil and Argentina South America, the world’s most exotic continent, can entail plenty of hard miles and holiday endurance. But there is nothing tough about the “Flagship South America” break conjured by Scott Dunn (020 3432 6912; scottdunn.com). This 22-night travel banquet is a deluxe take on Argentina (the help of a personal shopper in Buenos Aires; a historic estancia in Cordoba) and Brazil (a private jet to Iguassu Falls; three nights in a Penthouse Suite at the iconic Copacabana Palace in Rio; helicopter flights above the city and on to Florianopolis beach resort). The top price of £27,890 per person (two sharing) includes international flights and most meals.

Valley Trunk is available for exclusive hire, it comes with a chef, butlers, a yoga instructor and spa therapists

Throw a private party in the British Virgin Islands There can be few more alluring venues for a milestone celebration or just an escape than a quiet slice of Caribbean shore. Which is precisely the definition of Valley Trunk (valleytrunk.com), a private estate on the south-west coast of Virgin Gorda, the third largest of the British Virgin Islands. Available for exclusive hire, it comes with a chef, butlers, a yoga instructor and spa therapists and has nine suites, which sleep up to 24, set in 19 acres of tropical gardens. It can be rented for £7,115 a night for up to six guests. It would cost £34,930 a head for a couple to share a decadent fortnight in the sun, or £48,790 in total to throw a two-night party for the full quota. The Xanadu, a 68ft yacht, is part of the deal. International flights – connecting in Antigua is best – are not included.

Up to £100,000 per person

Catch a private jet around (most of) the world Of course, if money is no object, there is no need to limit yourself to just one section of the globe. Abercrombie & Kent (01242 855 876; abercrombiekent.co.uk) offers “Islands, Savannas & the Amazon”, a splendidly extravagant 25-night near-circumnavigation by private jet. The next edition will leave Miami on October 12, arching south into the Peruvian Amazon, then leaping on to Chile’s Easter Island. Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Bali follow as the Pacific is crossed, before further pauses in Sri Lanka, Madagascar and Kenya (for time on safari), with the party concluding in Monaco on November 6. The tour is limited to 50 people, with prices starting at £70,600 per person (with two sharing), including food and accommodation, but not flights to and from the start and end points.

Cunard's Queen Victoria. Photo: AP

Over £100,000 per person

Take in the complete picture by ocean wave If whizzing about Earth in less than a month seems awfully hasty, the more considered alternative is the round-the-world voyage that Cunard (0843 374 2224; cunard.co.uk) has set to leave Southampton on January 10, 2016. This epic 120-night endeavour will see the Queen Victoria sail west to Florida, Aruba and Colombia, before passing through the Panama Canal for dates with Guatemala, California and Hawaii. Other ports of call are in New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Sri Lanka, the Seychelles, South Africa, St Helena and Cape Verde ahead of a return to Southampton on May 10. For those with cash to burn, it is still possible to book the top accommodation option of the Grand Suite, from £117,149 per person (for two sharing). This enormous retreat has its own butler.